For other uses of this term, see Industry (disambiguation)

An industry is generally any grouping of businesses that share a common method of generating profits, such as the "music industry", the "automobile industry", or the "cattle industry". It is also used specifically to refer to an area of economic production focused on manufacturing which involves large amounts of capital investment before any profit can be realized, also called "heavy industry.". As-of 2004, Financial services is the largest industry (or category of industries) in the world in terms of earnings.

Industry in the second sense became a key sector of production in European and North American countries during the Industrial Revolution, which upset previous mercantile and feudal economies through many successive rapid advances in technology, such as the development of steam engines, power looms, and advances in large scale steel and coal production. Industrial countries then assumed a capitalist economic policy. Railroads and steam-powered ships began speedily integrating previously impossibly-distant world markets, enabling private companies to develop to then-unheard of size and wealth. Following the Industrial Revolution, perhaps a third of the world's economic output is derived from manufacturing industries—more than agriculture's share, but now less than that of the service sector.

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NYT > Job Market

Under New Management: Life After a Merger: Learning on Both Sides
KELLEY HOLLAND Sun, 24 Jun 2007 03:11:03 -0400
Managers should act promptly (and creatively) to keep the best people after a deal.
Home Front: Training for the Twists of Driving a School Bus
JOSEPH P. FRIED Sat, 23 Jun 2007 16:25:36 -0400
A program in Brooklyn helps low-income or unemployed New York City residents become bus or truck drivers.
The Boss: When Focus Leads the Way
As told to PATRICIA R. OLSEN Sun, 24 Jun 2007 03:13:22 -0400
“New Orleans defines who I am,” said Arnold Donald, chief executive of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International.

Portfolio.com: Careers

The Rain Maker
Thu, 07 Aug 2008 04:00:00 -0000
In past years, Pete Fisch used to cross his fingers, hoping it wouldn't rain during the annual golf tournament he manages in North Carolina. In 2005, it poured, costing the tournament tens of thousands of dollars in reduced ticket and concession sales. In 2006, the rain gods held off—and then last year, Fisch simply sat back and let come what may.That's because a new online service called WeatherBill enabled him to purchase a contract that paid off in case of heavy rain—hedging away his exposure to the weather.  As it turned out, it did rain heavily last year. Fisch's tournament received a payout of close to $15,000 from WeatherBill. "We still took a loss of around $25,000 to $35,000, but it's better than the $50,000 we would have lost," Fisch says. As businesses contemplate losing massive amounts of money from events like droughts and hurricanes, WeatherBill hopes to carve out a market in the growing field of weather-related risk-management products, offering what are essentially weather futures contracts to companies with an internet-era twist. The contracts pay off automatically without any kind of claims process based on objective weather measurements like the inches of rain a given area receives.The company is the brainchild of David Friedberg, who had previously been the business product manager for Google's AdWords and a founding member of the company's corporate-development group, where he led the search giant's acquisitions of companies like Picasa, Urchin Software, and dMarc. Friedberg left Google to launch WeatherBill in 2006.The potential market for weather coverage is huge, since as much as 70 percent of American businesses are impacted by weather in some way. While the risks for companies like agricultural firms are obvious, businesses from movie theaters—which see ticket sales slump on sunny days—to transportation companies and clothing manufacturers are affected by the weather. It's estimated that $2 trillion to $3 trillion of the United States' nearly $14 trillion G.D.P. is weather-sensitive. Businesses have long bought insurance against weather-related damages; more recently, they have been able to buy weather futures contracts on exchanges like the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, but the offerings are largely linked to temperature and are unwieldy and expensive for smaller companies. WeatherBill takes a different approach, borrowing from AdWords' sophisticated, real-time auction engine for pricing keywords. Just as AdWords integrates the latest market changes on a continuous basis, the WeatherBill pricing engine correlates up-to-the-minute weather forecasts with trend data to assess a company's overall risk. Then it spits out a price based on all those factors, with all of this happening in a tenth of a second, and contracts can be purchased right up to the last minute since the latest weather information automatically gets incorporated into the pricing engine."For weather coverage to be useful, you have to customize it," Friedberg says. "It's not like car insurance—you're a male between 20 and 40 in San Francisco, here's your price for car insurance."   The end result is that more types of weather contracts are available and more businesses can afford it. When Fisch's golf tournament bought its rain contract in 2007, the cost was just under $1,000, according to Fisch. Like a typical insurance business model, WeatherBill's strategy is to sell against enough weather eventualities so that the events will essentially balance each other out. Insuring a soybean grower in Iowa against drought might be a money loser, for instance. But if the soybean grower is offset by the state's car washes, which do big business in dry weather, the risk is diversified. Not every customer has a precise counterpart, but a large mix of customers creates a diversified portfolio that, in turn, can bring down prices. "Our business has all sides of risk—we've got customers wanting rain, drought, heat waves, frost, no frost. We even have people who want hurricanes," says Friedberg.Since last year's launch, Friedberg says WeatherBill has signed policies with hundreds of customers, hedged hundreds of millions of dollars of risk, and brought in revenue "in the millions." A major deal was struck with Priceline recently, allowing the travel company to insure its users against rain on their vacations for no extra cost. (Priceline will refund the cost of a customer's trip if it rains heavily on more than half the days of their trip.) And the United States Tennis Association has announced it's buying a weather contract to hedge against weather-related losses at this year's U.S. Open, although it hasn't released details. The Commodities Futures Trading Commission, which regulates weather derivatives, currently limits WeatherBill's customers to accredited investors with a minimum net worth of $1 million as a way of limiting the influence of speculators. But Friedberg hopes to persuade the C.F.T.C. to change that requirement soon and eventually offer policies directly to individuals wishing to protect weddings, travel plans, and other events. As with businesses, premiums would shrink as more customers are integrated into the algorithm and the risk is balanced out.And Friedberg says that global warming and the volatile weather of the last few years set the right conditions for his business."Citrus farmers will call us and say, 'We had four frost events last year. It was nuts. My crop was diminished by 15 to 20 percent,'" Friedberg says. "A lot of ski resorts were shut for much of 2006 and 2007 in the Northeast because it was really warm. They called us the next year. Our customers are definitely aware of climate change and its impact."Related LinksIntroducing CFTC Commissioner Bart Chilton, Metaphor ManiacHow the Futures Conundrum Causes Higher Food PricesCharges for Amaranth and Trader
Who Designed the Electric Car?
Mon, 04 Aug 2008 02:00:00 -0000
Job Title: Car designer Employers:  Auto manufacturers Openings: Art design schools and networking Salary Cap: Low seven figures Number of Jobs: About 1,000 Car designer Bob Boniface has run the prototype for the Chevy Volt through the company's wind tunnel 600 times now, and each time he comes up with a different tweak to cut just a little more wind resistance from it. The Volt is one of G.M.'s most important cars in years since it's designed to run completely on electricity.      "We smoothed the front and sharpened the edge of the rear to cut down on the drag," explains Boniface, running his hand reverently along the surface of a clay model of the car. "The show car wasn't the most aerodynamic, so we had to do a lot of work on that." As director of design for the Volt and for G.M.'s electric-car efforts in general, Boniface was charged with creating a great-looking sports coupe that's streamlined and light enough to require less energy to power it. The first one is due out in November 2010, with 60,000 cars planned for production for the first two years. It's expected to retail under $30,000. "The Volt has to look tough and confident," Boniface says. "We didn't want to design a jelly bean. It's going to be a sporty four-door coupe that will appeal to those who are buying transportation that's environmentally conscious, but would like a sports car." It's not Boniface's first pass at bringing style to environmentally correct cars. At Daimler Chrysler, he was the lead designer for the 2002 Jeep Liberty, 1998 Dodge Intrepid, and the 1996 Intrepid ESX hybrid concept car, as well as the hydrogen-powered G.M. Sequel. His designs proved so popular that, in 1998, he received the Young Leadership and Excellence award from the Automotive Hall of Fame. Boniface, whose father collected classic cars, says he's been drawing autos since he was four and always dreamed of designing them himself one day. But he studied psychology and economics in college, and then worked as an accountant, while drawing cars in the evenings. One of his sisters eventually talked him into going back to school for an art degree, which led to a job at Chrysler, followed by G.M. in 2003.     Today, Boniface supervises a team of 45 designers, sculptors, engineers, and support staff on the Volt project.     The continued rise in gas prices will likely have a profound effect on the way cars are designed, Boniface says. The most energy-efficient cars may come in unattractive shapes to accommodate what's under the hood, but he believes that cars should still have character and personality. "I'd hate to see us take all the life out of a car to get that last bit of drag out. That'd be design by science only," he says. "Cars are an emotional purchase, and they say a lot about you. The Volt is going to be a car that looks good and drives efficiently." Related LinksMy Other Luxury Car Is a MaseratiShowing New ColorsA Few Surprises Left at Detroit
The Right Way to Be Fired
Fri, 01 Aug 2008 04:00:00 -0000
Even if you’re a top-notch executive in the best of times, you can still lose your job. But can you lose it the right way? For some executives, getting fired is cause for lashing out, sinking into depression, or silently retreating. But these responses make it difficult to generate new opportunities—and can destroy careers. How can you avoid these termination traps and make the best of being fired? First, get rid of the “tenure mind-set”—that falsely comforting sense that your organization will take care of you until you formally retire. Instead, adopt the “assignment mind-set”—seeing each job as a stepping-stone, a temporary project in your long-term career. Then, take steps to control how you’re fired—and how you respond. The payoff? You position yourself for excellent new opportunities and you make a great catch for your next employer. You’re in control. The Idea in Practice Termination Traps Executives risk falling into these traps when losing a job: Trap Who’s Most Susceptible What Happens Lost Identity Founders, senior execs, longtime company leaders who’ve accumulated power and have "become" their jobs. They fight back—lashing out against former employers and branding themselves as people no one wants to work with. Lost Family Leaders in companies with high emotional intensity where people consider colleagues family. They mourn—sinking into bitterness and depression, becoming unattractive candidates for future positions. Lost Ego Introverts with top positions in areas requiring little outside interaction (e.g., accounting, engineering). They fade away—neglecting to negotiate decent severance and refusing to network to generate new opportunities. Assume You’ll Be Fired—and Lay the Right Groundwork How to manage the possibility of being fired? Accept the impermanence of your job, and take these systematic approaches to your next move: •    Insert a termination clause in your employment contract—Counterintuitive, yes, but it’s your best hedge against a bitter exit. You’re never as attractive as the day you sign your contract. •    Schedule network phone calls—Make networking a disciplined, regular part of doing business. Keep your web of professional contacts intact. •    Raise your visibility—Conduct your own public-relations campaign, keeping a strong industry profile. Serve on for-profit boards in and outside your industry. Volunteer for trade associations’ externally oriented committees. •    Watch for exit signs—Getting fired should not come as a surprise. If your firm hustles people out the door, raise your own guard. If the company itself has an exit plan, find out how it affects your position. Consult with trusted, seasoned advisers who can alert you to potential changes. •    Volunteer to be terminated—if the firm’s exit strategy includes you. This makes you the actor, rather than the one acted upon. Purchase the full-length Harvard Business Review article.Related Links$1,000 to Quit? Take This Job and Love It
Meetings That Work: Plans Bosses Can Approve
Fri, 01 Aug 2008 04:00:00 -0000
The vice president of a crisis-ridden subsidiary went into his annual strategic plan meeting carrying nothing more than a spreadsheet—no lengthy plan document, no hour-long PowerPoint presentation. The result of this seemingly outrageous, unprofessional, unprepared meeting? Top management hotly debated his proposal, peppered him with pointed questions, and...approved his plans. The lessons? Trash the bulging three-ring binders crammed with facts, figures, charts, and endless prose about markets and competitors. Throw away your assumption that executives accept or reject new plans based on extensive reading, study, and analysis. Instead, focus on meetings—that’s where executives spend most of their time. It’s where plans become real—where they’re approved nor based on a rigorous and creative exchange of information and ideas.  If you need to sell your superiors on a capital budget, a new piece of equipment, or an increase in your work force, focus them on the most important elements of your plan—elements that convincingly answer these four questions with simplicity and clarity: What is the plan? Why is the plan recommended? What are the goals? How much will it cost to implement the plan? The Idea in Practice Devote no more than one page to each of the following four points: 1. What is the plan? Begin with a positive, specific, and future-tense statement of strategy, followed by a list of concrete actions to support the strategy. Don’t avoid confrontations by making overly general statements. For example, “Margins will be increased by focusing on the high-growth segments of the market” is a meaningless, albeit universal goal. Instead, say, “The sales staff will be doubled so we can expand into the New York–New Jersey electronics market.” That’s a plan a CEO can discuss, accept, or reject. 2. Why is the plan recommended? Make the plan’s rationale clear. Your boss should not have to figure this out herself, wading through muddled details or unstated operational issues. Provide synthesized information about markets, competition, costs, and other variables. Leave plenty of time during the meeting to build consensus around your plan and its specific programs. Encourage questions when the decision makers have doubts. The meeting should end with clear decisions and support. 3. What are the goals? Identify specific, measurable goals to meet if the boss approves your plan. This will force you to be realistic. Focus the meeting conversation first on the unit of measure, not the numbers themselves. Is your goal increased earnings? Improved market share? Avoid excessive number crunching. Limit the financial detail to a few important numbers and keep the complete market picture in wide-angle focus. 4. How much will the plan cost? Request all the resources needed to carry out your plan, both for the short and long term. With clear agreement on resources—financial, human, and other—you heighten your programs’ chances of success. Resolving these four points in one meeting with your boss may not guarantee approval of all your plans, but it will make all your meetings far more productive. Purchase the full-length Harvard Business Review article. Related LinksFirst the GMAT. Now This.Forget Greed. Today Green Is Good.Insider Trading: The Reunion Tour
Managing Oneself
Fri, 01 Aug 2008 04:00:00 -0000
We live in an age of unprecedented opportunity: If you’ve got ambition, drive, and smarts, you can rise to the top of your chosen profession—regardless of where you started out. But with opportunity comes responsibility. Companies today aren’t managing their knowledge workers’ careers. Rather, we must each be our own chief executive officer. Simply put, it’s up to you to carve out your place in the work world and know when to change course. And it’s up to you to keep yourself engaged and productive during a work life that may span some 50 years. To do all of these things well, you’ll need to cultivate a deep understanding of yourself. What are your most valuable strengths and most dangerous weaknesses? Equally important, how do you learn and work with others? What are your most deeply held values? And in what type of work environment can you make the greatest contribution? The implication is clear: Only when you operate from a combination of your strengths and self-knowledge can you achieve true—and lasting—excellence. The Idea in Practice To build a life of excellence, begin by asking yourself these questions: “What are my strengths?” To accurately identify your strengths, use feedback analysis. Every time you make a key decision, write down the outcome you expect. Several months later, compare the actual results with your expected results. Look for patterns in what you’re seeing: What results are you skilled at generating? What abilities do you need to enhance in order to get the results you want? What unproductive habits are preventing you from creating the outcomes you desire? In identifying opportunities for improvement, don’t waste time cultivating skill areas where you have little competence. Instead, concentrate on—and build on—your strengths. “How do I work?” In what ways do you work best? Do you process information most effectively by reading it, or by hearing others discuss it? Do you accomplish the most by working with other people, or by working alone? Do you perform best while making decisions, or while advising others on key matters? Are you in top form when things get stressful, or do you function optimally in a highly predictable environment? “What are my values?” What are your ethics? What do you see as your most important responsibilities for living a worthy, ethical life? Do your organization’s ethics resonate with your own values? If not, your career will likely be marked by frustration and poor performance. “Where do I belong?” Consider your strengths, preferred work style, and values. Based on these qualities, in what kind of work environment would you fit in best? Find the perfect fit, and you’ll transform yourself from a merely acceptable employee into a star performer. “What can I contribute?” In earlier eras, companies told businesspeople what their contribution should be. Today, you have choices. To decide how you can best enhance your organization’s performance, first ask what the situation requires. Based on your strengths, work style, and values, how might you make the greatest contribution to your organization’s efforts? Purchase the full-length Harvard Business Review article. Related LinksThe Minimum Wage and EmploymentAre Minimum Wage Hikes More Effective Than Tax Rebates?Cudgel Over the Quants
Do Women Lack Ambition?
Fri, 01 Aug 2008 04:00:00 -0000
Women today have more opportunities than ever to pursue major life goals. So why do many of them walk away from their dreams? It’s not that they lack ambition: Young girls confidently envision becoming renowned business leaders, diplomats, artists, and scientists. They fully expect to master important skills and earn recognition for their successes—the two essential ingredients of achievement. But when girls become women and enter the professional arena or start families, they succumb to powerful cultural imperatives that equate ambition and quests for recognition with lack of femininity. Many soon associate ambition with egotism or selfishness. And they receive scant praise for achievements and personal qualities (drive, decisiveness, assertiveness) that conflict with traditional notions of femininity. Result? To be seen as feminine, women deny their ambitiousness, cede recognition to men—and abandon their dreams. Deeming their work lives unfulfilling, many leave their jobs. To reverse the situation, women must get ambitious about ambition—including cultivating connections with people who have the power to advance their work and publicly praise their successes. When women master new skills and actively claim recognition, they achieve more of their goals—enriching themselves and their organizations. The Idea in Practice Women can use these strategies to defy the odds stacked against their ambitions: Organize Politically Women pursue their ambitions only when confident they won’t put their children’s care at risk. Therefore, organize with other women to form a political constituency with one goal: supporting mothers in the workforce and mothers who choose to remain at home. Don’t Allow Society to Define You Women have too many conflicting roles thrust on them: devoted mother, sex symbol, innovative professional, supportive wife, competent employee, talented homemaker. To rise above the confusion, assert your own values, priorities, and identity. Carve out a life for yourself that has profound meaning and immense satisfaction. Actively Claim Recognition To sustain your ambitions, formulate life plans that enable you to earn recognition based on talent, skill, or work—not physical appearance or subservience. That means not only mastering the skills required to pursue your ambitions but also seizing opportunities to demonstrate those skills in arenas where your talents will be valued and publicly praised. Blow Your Own Horn In itself, high-caliber work won’t generate proper recognition for your accomplishments. Forge connections with mentors, peers, and powerful people who can help you blow your own horn—or blow it for you. Overcome any personal resistance to the notion of cultivating relationships based on expediency. Realize It’s Never Too Late Ambitions continually evolve in response to new opportunities for mastery and recognition. Never assume that it’s too late to find powerful mentors, seize opportunities to learn new skills, earn promotions, or gain support from admiring peers. Purchase the full-length Harvard Business Review article. Related Links$1,000 to Quit? Take This Job and Love It

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